Cox Cable Cards

Nice thought, but there is NO WAY Tivo shipped 100,000 units in the first week.

Click to expand...

Fine. They've shipped 10,000 since they started. That means at least 50 bad units. The logic still holds. Just because a half a dozen people have had problems with their units doesn't mean everyone at TiVo is a moron, nobody does any testing, and they have a HUGE quality control problem.

Well, I got the Tivo Series 3 on the 14th. Had to wait for the cablecard installation till the 19th. I'm under Cox Fairfax. The first installer installed both cards on that date. Slot 1 works fine since it brings up my premium channels, digital cable channels, and broadcast channels. However, slot 2 only brought up my broadcast channels. Won't display HBO, Discovery, ESPN, TNT, or other cable channels. Got another technician to come out this past Tuesday evening and he switched the second card out with two other cards (that were never used before, brand new) and it still has the same problem! So I have another technician coming out later today. But I'm thinking its the slot 2 on the tivo box that doesn't work b/c the technician from Tuesday said they've been getting a lot of people with Tivos that have the same problem that I have. What also stinks is the fact I can't go to any Best Buys around here to exchange the unit since none of them have it in stock.

Fine. They've shipped 10,000 since they started. That means at least 50 bad units. The logic still holds. Just because a half a dozen people have had problems with their units doesn't mean everyone at TiVo is a moron, nobody does any testing, and they have a HUGE quality control problem.

Click to expand...

I agree.

Never had a problem with your presmise, just the number. (And even 10K would be fantastic!)

Well, I got the Tivo Series 3 on the 14th. Had to wait for the cablecard installation till the 19th. I'm under Cox Fairfax. The first installer installed both cards on that date. Slot 1 works fine since it brings up my premium channels, digital cable channels, and broadcast channels. However, slot 2 only brought up my broadcast channels. Won't display HBO, Discovery, ESPN, TNT, or other cable channels. Got another technician to come out this past Tuesday evening and he switched the second card out with two other cards (that were never used before, brand new) and it still has the same problem! So I have another technician coming out later today. But I'm thinking its the slot 2 on the tivo box that doesn't work b/c the technician from Tuesday said they've been getting a lot of people with Tivos that have the same problem that I have. What also stinks is the fact I can't go to any Best Buys around here to exchange the unit since none of them have it in stock.

Click to expand...

Sounds like a balancing problem to me, not your Tivo. Read the prior posts regarding this problem.

Sounds like a balancing problem to me, not your Tivo. Read the prior posts regarding this problem.

Click to expand...

I had a similar problem as the original poster (I'm also Cox/Fairfax), and nobody I spoke to (the install technician, the two CSR reps) had any idea what "balancing" meant. The only thing that fixed it was a new CableCard. I feel like maybe the problem was at the headend, but the new CableCard fixed it, so I guess I don't care. But I agree it doesn't sound like a Tivo problem ... the Tivo problems I've seen posted are where the card doesn't work at all.

Fine. They've shipped 10,000 since they started. That means at least 50 bad units. The logic still holds. Just because a half a dozen people have had problems with their units doesn't mean everyone at TiVo is a moron, nobody does any testing, and they have a HUGE quality control problem.

Click to expand...

1. Generally acceptable DOA rates are 1%: Acceptable to whom? What's your source?
2. Half a dozen people have had problems. Interesting number. What's your source?
3. Moron: Can't find the use of this word in my post.
4. HUGE: Can't find the use of this word in my post either.​

I was just responding to the post of another user with an identical problem as mine. Just seems to me there would be a diagnostic run on the machine before it left the factory.

I had a similar problem as the original poster (I'm also Cox/Fairfax), and nobody I spoke to (the install technician, the two CSR reps) had any idea what "balancing" meant. The only thing that fixed it was a new CableCard. I feel like maybe the problem was at the headend, but the new CableCard fixed it, so I guess I don't care. But I agree it doesn't sound like a Tivo problem ... the Tivo problems I've seen posted are where the card doesn't work at all.

Click to expand...

The weird thing is that when we put in the second card into slot 2, no information pops up at all. I had to manually go into the menus to get the Cable Card ID and Host ID. Also in the Cablecard CP menu, the Powerkey status says "Not Ready-Waiting for EMMs.", while for the first cablecard, it says "Ready". The Cox rep had hit the Cablecard in slot 2 to no avail. And she said that they didn't see any problems. Urghh at being an early adaptor.....

Cox (Phoenix, AZ) came out and installed my cable cards in about 45 minutes. He tested the signal at the box outside, then at the wall plate, (it was perfect), then he installed the first card, called in and then it came up, installed the second card, called in and it came up... and been dandy ever since (this was on monday morning).

I'm very happy with my Series 3!

BTW - I also upgraded it to a seagate 750GB sata drive, it is a bit noisier than the 250GB WD drive that comes with the Series 3, but it is 3x the capacity and all

I had a similar problem as the original poster (I'm also Cox/Fairfax), and nobody I spoke to (the install technician, the two CSR reps) had any idea what "balancing" meant.

Click to expand...

When I had my "balancing" problem, what the Cable Tech meant was that the programs I subscribed to where not added equally to each cable card. Apparently, to the person doing the provisioning at the headend, each cable card looks like a separate cable box. They seem to have a problem getting all of the authorizations added to cable cards but do OK when doing the same for a *real* cable box.

So in otherwords, you made it up. What else did you make up? You didn't answer any of my questions.

Click to expand...

And I am electing not to. I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with you over who is right. You believe that 1 single bad unit means TiVo is a company who is incapable of the most basic testing during the production process. I disagree with you. That's the end of that.

The guy showed up at 5:25, and was done by 5:55. And that included performing my Guided Setup to change over to Digital cable!

No problems at all with the CableCards. He plugged them in, started my Guided Setup, called into the office to get them activated, and by the time the Setup ended, he was off the phone. It couldn't have gone smoother.

My only issues are with 705 (Fox) and 709 (CBS). They seem to be intermittent, sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't.

I got my replacement Tivo from Circuity City and had Cox come for attempt #2 Friday afternoon. The same technician came again as he is now the "expert" for Cox locally. He got the replacement Tivo up and running in about 20 minutes.

Everything went very smooth once I had a unit with two working cable card slots.

The guy showed up at 5:25, and was done by 5:55. And that included performing my Guided Setup to change over to Digital cable!

No problems at all with the CableCards. He plugged them in, started my Guided Setup, called into the office to get them activated, and by the time the Setup ended, he was off the phone. It couldn't have gone smoother.

My only issues are with 705 (Fox) and 709 (CBS). They seem to be intermittent, sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't.

Cable signal strength is no less than 98 across the board.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a pretty big limitation. Have you fixed the problem. I know two of the locals on Cox are above 800MHz, but the S3 is supposed to tune there OK. Is Cox charging you a $6.99 "digital gateway" fee for each cablecard in addition to the cablecard fee?

I'm another Fairfax Cox customer, and had my cablecards installed in the first week that the S3's shipped... when I first got them installed, everything seemed fine, and immediately thereafter I had to travel on company business. Since returning, I immediately noticed some weird things going on...

1. The primary cablecard seems to be able to get all the channels I subscribe to, though they all appear to be digital so I have no recording quality options.

2. The second cablecard cablecard seems to be able to recieve the HD channels, (and by that I mean only the "free" network HD channels), and a few of the non-HD non-network channels (like public service channels) but doesn't seem to recieve anything else. Black screen but no message about missing signal.

I called Cox and explained the issue. They said they would refresh the programming signal to both cards to make sure they both have the same channels. That didn't seem to make any difference.

I figured I'd need to get a tech out there eventually, but at least it was all working well enough on the primary tuner, so I was fine.

Now, a week later I am seeing new issues:

1. I recorded the 2nd episode of "Heroes" in HD it only recorded the last 40 minutes of the show and it was almost unwatchable due to digital artifacting and sound cutting in and out. When I could see it, the picture looked great, but it kept being broken up. When I checked the the channel on live TV (705 I think) it was doing the same thing. On the second tuner the signal seemed fine and it did not have that digital artifacts issue on any of the HD channels.

2. Today I try to record "Lost" in HD and when I turn on the TV to see if its working properly, there is just a black screen. I make sure its working, and when I hit info it tells me there is no signal. I stop the recording to check the other channels and one of the other HD channels also shows no signal, but the rest seem to be okay. I tune to SciFi (82) and it tunes properly, but now I'm seeing some of the digital artifacts on that channel now too, even tho its supposed to be analog (or it was before.) I also check with the 2nd tuner and it also does not see a signal on those two HD channels, but it still doesn't get SciFi so I check channel 8 which seems fine.

I check diagnostics and it shows my signal strengh as 65 (with lock okay) on my main tuner which is tuned to channel 82 and signal strength 0 (with lock okay) on the 2nd one, which is tuned to channel 8. When I checked yesterday, I'm pretty sure both showed signal strength of 78 on HD channels. I'm pretty sure they showed 100 when Cox first installed the cablecards.

My system is also one of those that when you go to the cablecard config menu that constantly pops in and out of diagnostic modes on its own and you have to hit the Tivo button to get back to the main menu. It won't stay on the cablecard troubleshooting menus long enough to do much. The 2nd cablecard originally was attempted to be installed in slot 1, but wouldn't initialize there... though it seemed to work fine in slot 2 after another card went into slot 1.

So, it sounds like at least one of my cablecards (probably 2nd one) is not working right or at least not accepting programming, though seems to be working fine elsewhere. It also seems like there is something funky going on with my signal strength too. I have a cable modem as well and it seems to be working fine.

Figure I should probably schedule another appt to at least try to get the 2nd card exchanged, but not sure about the rest. Any insight would be appreciated.

I'm another Fairfax Cox customer, and had my cablecards installed in the first week that the S3's shipped... when I first got them installed, everything seemed fine, and immediately thereafter I had to travel on company business. Since returning, I immediately noticed some weird things going on...

1. The primary cablecard seems to be able to get all the channels I subscribe to, though they all appear to be digital so I have no recording quality options.

2. The second cablecard cablecard seems to be able to recieve the HD channels, (and by that I mean only the "free" network HD channels), and a few of the non-HD non-network channels (like public service channels) but doesn't seem to recieve anything else. Black screen but no message about missing signal.

I called Cox and explained the issue. They said they would refresh the programming signal to both cards to make sure they both have the same channels. That didn't seem to make any difference.

Click to expand...

I am Cox/Fairfax as well, and I had the _exact_ same problems as you (second cablecard only tuned a few channels). The only thing that fixed it was another truck roll and a replacement card. I haven't seen anything like the other problems you reported, though.

I check diagnostics and it shows my signal strengh as 65 (with lock okay) on my main tuner which is tuned to channel 82 and signal strength 0 (with lock okay) on the 2nd one, which is tuned to channel 8. When I checked yesterday, I'm pretty sure both showed signal strength of 78 on HD channels. I'm pretty sure they showed 100 when Cox first installed the cablecards.

Click to expand...

Get the cable company to check your signal levels (in the incoming cable).

If you are seeing only 65-80 on the Tivo meter, something's wrong.

I would expect a level of 65 to possible result in the recording/signal problems you mention.